I thought this was an interesting little potted history of the war on drugs.

Today it is taken for granted that governments will co-operate in the fight against the heroin and cocaine trade.

But 100 years ago, narcotics passed from country to country with minimal interference from the authorities. That all changed with the 1912 International Opium Convention, which committed countries to stopping the trade in opium, morphine and cocaine.

Then, as now, the US stood in the vanguard against narcotics. While the UK's position is unequivocal today, a century ago it was an unenthusiastic signatory, says Mike Jay, author of Emperors of Dreams: Drugs in the Nineteenth Century.

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I like the way Denmark handles their drug problems. This is how it was explained to me when I visited Denmark some time ago. "If people want to do drugs, fine, go do it on a one city block, but do not leave under the influence and harm any one or you are off to jail. If you are injured or sick, do not expect aid and be taken to the hospital. If someone has been murdered there will be no investigation. You go there, you stay there." Is this true?

Doesn't sound very likely to me to be honest. It probably has kernels of truth in it. Like there being special areas where drug usage accepted. But a block where police won't investigate murders?

Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

MacIver wrote:Doesn't sound very likely to me to be honest. It probably has kernels of truth in it. Like there being special areas where drug usage accepted. But a block where police won't investigate murders?

What I mean is legally sanctioned. I remember hearing a few years back that one (or more) of the Nordic nations have areas where heroin addicts can go, get clean needles and shoot up without fear of police arresting them for possession or usage. The idea being that they are going to do it anyway, they might as well do it somewhere safer for both them and non-users. Perhaps this is what Grace was thinking of.

Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.